Chris Rogers in action for Middlesex, his latest English first-class county after Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Northants. Photograph: Ben Hoskins/Getty Images

It has been a little less than a year since Chris Rogers was told he did not have a future in Australian cricket. Victoria, who he had been with since 2008, said they were thinking of releasing him rather than renewing his contract. It had been four years since he had last spoken to the international selectors, never mind played a Test. "There were times," he says, "when I had given up hope."

There was a hint at how far Rogers felt he was from a Test recall in a piece he wrote for Cricinfo last year, which contained forensic criticism of some of the players he is now alongside in the Australia squad. Rogers suggested that perhaps Twenty20 cricket was "playing havoc with the techniques of young batsmen", pointing out that Usman Khawaja, for instance, batted with an "open blade and a front-on position" that caused him to "square-up" and "miss deliveries by as much as six inches".

He said that it was a flaw that the "opposition was sure to be pencilling in to their little black books". His new team-mates may have taken note of his words, too.

"I've had some pretty good feedback from it," Rogers says with a wry smile. "Some of the guys have even been a bit grateful." He does not say whether Khawaja was among them. To his credit, Rogers stands by the piece. "It is hard to argue against that. When I grew up, and I have heard Ricky Ponting talk about this as well, it was a case of batting for as long as you possibly can until someone gets you out."

Which is where Rogers comes in. In that same article he lamented the fact that "for years as Australia ruled the cricket world, we were blessed with champions who churned out thousands of first-class runs before being selected".

He is one of them, perhaps the last of the lineage. He has played 233 first-class matches and scored more than 19,000 runs at a touch over 50. He clearly thinks that his international recall is overdue. "There were a lot of 50-50 decisions between myself and other players, where they opted for the youth." The selectors finally got in touch again last year, shortly after Victoria changed their mind and decided to keep him on after all.

So, in his mid-30s, Rogers finds himself in the strange situation of being the most experienced player in the squad, and also one of the greenest.

His success, on the field and off it, is going to depend on how he squares those two things. He has played only one match for Australia, a Test against India in 2007, when he spent just eight days with the side, coming in as a late replacement for Matthew Hayden. "That was such a whirlwind, to be honest," he says. "It was hard to enjoy it. I'm hoping this time it might be easier to sit back and enjoy the experience."

Rogers says he would like to think that the leadership group will lean on him but, at the same time, he admits that "I haven't been on that stage before apart from in one game, so it might take me a little bit of time to get used to it; the hype, the support, all those things that go with it". He was, he says, "starting to chew my nails a little bit" when he was waiting to find out whether he had made the cut.

That does not make Rogers sound like the hardened old pro he is. He is an old hand in English conditions, and a familiar face – most recently at Middlesex – to those who spend time on the county circuit. "I probably have more experience in English conditions than anyone else in the side," Rogers says. He wants to "pass on little pieces of that" to his team-mates.

Judging by their recent performances, that is not all he has to teach them. "I guess as you get older you don't take anything for granted. The person I am, I tend to fight for everything I can get. I still hadn't given up hope of playing again for Australia, and I like to think that has been rewarded in the end."